Timeline Of Factory Turbo Cars

Turbochargers were a novelty 50 years ago, but today you can find turbocharged gasoline engines in everything from the 40-mpg Chevrolet Cruze to the 365hp Ford F-150 EcoBoost V6 in F-150 trucks. More factory turbo applications are on the horizon, too. Cadillac has a twin-turbo V6 in the works, and rumor has it that it’s only a matter of time before the Mustang has another turbo four-cylinder on the option sheet. With all of these boosted engines becoming available, we thought it would be a good time to take a quick look back at the 50-year-old roots of factory turbos from the Big Three.

1962

The 150hp turbocharged flat six in the ’62 Corvair (shown) beat the Turbo Jetfire Oldsmobile 215 to market by a matter of weeks to claim the title of first factory turbo. The Olds used a water-ethanol spray to cool the intake charge and was rated at 215 hp and 300 lb-ft.

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1965

Chevrolet Corvair’s turbocharged 164-cube flat six now produces 180 hp. Dick Griffin won the NHRA B-Stock class twice in a Corvair with a best pass of 13.03 seconds at 113.92 mph.

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1978

The first applications of the turbo Buick 3.8L are the B-body Buick LeSabre Sport Coupe and A/G-body Regal.

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1979

The first year of the Fox-body Mustang is also the first year for a turbo Mustang. The 135hp, 2.3L four-cylinder became the top engine after the 5.0L was debored to 4.2L shortly after the Fox-body launch. Also in 1979, the Buick Riviera (now a front-wheel-drive E-body) gets a turbo 3.8L.

Little known fact: 1982 was the first year of the Buick Grand National, but a few ’82 Grand Nationals were also turbocharged Sport Coupes.

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1984

Grand National (top) returns, dressed all in black, with fuel injection and a 200hp, 300-lb-ft 3.8L. Mustang SVO debuts with a turbo 2.3L producing 175 hp. Dodge puts turbo four-cylinders in just about all the little front-drive cars, including the Daytona (right).

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1985

Dodge Omni GLH ("Goes Like Hell") debuts with a turbo 2.2L four-cylinder. The Charger GLH-S (right) followed for 1987.

The 2.3L turbo in the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, first introduced in 1983, now offers 155 hp.

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1986

The Grand National receives a Garrett intercooler, which helps boost power to 235 hp.

Ford's new 2.3L turbo now produces 190 hp in the Thunderbird and 200 hp in the Mustang SVO. Carroll Shelby modified the final 500 Dodge Omni GLH cars with an intercooler and more boost to put out 175 hp and 175 lb-ft. They were sold as the Shelby GLH-S.

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1987

Further tuning yields 245 hp and 355 lb-ft for Grand Nationals (top). The limited-production Buick GNX, built by McLaren Performance Technologies, boasts 276 hp and 360 lb-ft. The Dodge-based Shelby Lancer debuts; it was, and still is, the only four-door Shelby (right).

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1989

With the G-body dead, the turbo 3.8L Buick migrates to Pontiac and finds itself in an F-body. Pontiac made 1,555 copies of the 20th Anniversary Edition Trans Am, every one of them white with a tan interior. Rumor has it the 250 hp rating was low to not step on the V8's toes. Dodge Caravan was available with a 150 hp 2.2L turbo.

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1991

The GMC Syclone carries a turbocharged version of Chev's 4.3L, 90-degree V6. Available only in black, the all-white-drive minitruck puts 280 hp and 350 lb-ft through a BorgWarner transfer case. Just 2,996 were produced.

1992

The GMC Typhoon (based on the S-10 Blazer/S-15 Jimmy) produces 280 hp and 360 lb-ft from a 4.3L V6 with a Mitsubishi turbo and Garrett intercooler. Less than 5,000 were built in the two-year production run.

2003

Dodge adds a 2.4L turbocharged engine to the Neon to create the SRT-4. Initially rated at 215 hp, the ’04 and ’05 models are upgraded to 230 hp.

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2008

Cobalt SS, once powered by a 205hp supercharged 2.0L, gets the turbocharged, direct-injected LNF 2.0L with 260 hp and 260 lb-ft. In 2009, Chevrolet offered a Stage 1 kit for the LNF that increases output to 280 hp and 320 lb-ft.